If a client comes to us with a large business project that needs a software development, a broad technical concept and requires a team engagement in working on tasks, then source code management is a must. Source code management tools help to control large projects by letting developers, writers, and product managers manage a project from different sides and make transparent changes without disrupting each other’s work. As a result, such an approach allows avoiding critical errors.

Code management toolsenable developers to be more flexible, creative and feel more freely when undertaking complex and challenging tasks. We at openGeeksLab decided to share with you a list of tools which we use ourselves.

A Curated List of Selected Tools

Each project is divided into specific parts. These parts are given to different developers who complete the tasks independently of each other. A developer writes code, pushes it into a separate branch, and creates a pull or a merge request to the main branch. A creator never pushes code into the main branch. These requests are validated by a technical lead — a person responsible for code correctness and quality. After a validation, a technical lead either leaves comments or a request is merged into the main branch — the changes are applied to the main branch. Gradually, all parts of the system are developed, assembled, and launched into production.

Gitis considered the most advanced configuration management software among software configuration management tools. The system assumes that the code is pushed into the repository by blocks (commits). Every next commit is applied over the previous one — they overlap each other as layers. Thus, all changes that occur during the development and throughout the release lifecycle, remain forever in the repository, whether they are correct or incorrect. As a result, you can easily track who, when, and what has changed. Also, a source code repository allows you to create branches — copies of commit trees. They allow you to work on different parts of the project without interfering with the main code and without damaging the working part. Also, several developers can create separate branches and work independently of each other. After that, they merge their branches into the main one. At the same time, there is a mechanism for resolving conflicts when merging branches.

And here is the list of code repository software that we use at openGeeksLab. Here you will also find a comparison of source code management tools.

1. GitHub

GitHub is considered the leading free source code repositoryworldwide. GitHub is good for open source code repositories. It also has a large community.

GitHub is a web-based hosting service that offers a Git repository service and allows using Git’s source code management best practices. Also, it supports Subversion (SVN) features. GitHub is considered a social network that connects issue tracking and distributed source control systems.

2. Bitbucket

The BitBucket source code management system is good for personal use or small startup teams.

It is a web-based hosted service that offers both the Mercurial and Git version control system. It allows creating a merge request checklist with assigned approvers and holds in-line discussions within a code snippet.

4. Mindomo

Mindomo is good for building mind maps, structural trees, data schemas. It also contains a textual description.

We chose Mindomo because it’s necessary to visualize a project architecture through a logical connection diagram of a project’s constituent elements. Building software architecture is an important part of the development stage. Writing code is the next step. When a large project has a convenient structure Mindomo simplifies the interaction between developers. It becomes clear how and what to do when one part of a project is in progress. And you can see how this part is connected to other parts. Everyone can look through a map. The GitHub, BitBucket, or GitLab repositories are created separately for each project part.

Price: As Travis CI states, first 100 builds are free. The service offers 4 plans — ’Bootstrap’ for 69 USD per month, ‘Startup’ for 129 USD per month, ‘Small Business’ for 249 USD per month, and ‘Premium’ for 489 USD per month.

Pros:

Cons:

Continuous Integration

Some users note the high cost of subscription plans

Easy-to-use

Sync with GitHub projects

Here are a couple of examples of how we use these tools and how they make our work easier.

Usually, according to the code management system rules, development is conducted in several branches, not in a single branch. This GitHub project was small and required a few functions. Therefore, we involved one developer who created a single branch. After he implemented the features and fixed bugs, the branch was merged in the master branch.

Here is an example of a project mind map with data schemas visualization.

To wrap up

In terms of software development, it doesn’t matter what code repository software to work with — GitHub, BitBucket, or GitLab. These source code repository tools are 90% identical. GitHub is good for open source code repositories. At a price of two mugs of coffee per month, you get an unlimited private repository. BitBucket is ideal for private use or small startup teams. It offers free private repositories up to 5 users. GitLab is good for IT enterprises because of Integrated CI/CD.

About openGeeksLab

openGeeksLab is more than a team of developers. They know everything you need in IT solutions: meeting deadlines, security, and transparency of development processes. openGeekslab starts building an app from scratch with the analysis and planning of all stages so that your business will work and bring money.

Alexandr Lebedev

Alexandr Lebedev is a Chief Technology Officer at openGeeksLab.

He has more than 10 years of experience in IT engineering. Extensive experience in Web & Mobile Development. Deep practical knowledge front-end and back-end production. Motivated team player with excellent communication skills. The expertise in working with internationally distributed teams.

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